PlantFiles: Yew, English Yew
Taxus baccata

Very slow growing evergreen with tough, highly flexible wood - it used to be the wood of choice for making bows in medieval times.
Prefers full sun on alkaline soils, does very well on dry slopes on chalk downs where other trees find it hard to grow.
One of the longest living trees, sometimes living to over 1000 years.

I understand that the fruit is the only part of this plant that is not poisonous, that´s why, I guess, God made it attractive (red), "substantious" (is that a word in English?) (fleshy) and, of course, edible. Some might say: “Nature is so wise!” but I know and I believe that Nature and God are the same person only with different names.

A coniferous tree from Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor regions.

Has linear, glossy, dark green leaves. Bears red arils containing one seed each on female trees, male trees bear yellow catkins. The bark is reddish brown and slightly peeling.

Loves well drained, humus rich, fertile soil in sun or shade.

Extremely poisonous to livestock (and humans) it shouldn't be used as a hedging plant for field boundaries. It does make a good, dense, shelter hedge in larger gardens and tolerates clipping and topiary.

The wood has a good degree of elasticity and was once used in Great Britain to make long bows as well as furniture. In some older parishes you can still see a couple of Yew trees close to the village church that were probably used as such or at least their ancestors were. Some people also say that Yew trees were used to mark the Anglo-Saxon village boundaries but there is little evidence for that. The Yew has a very long life and some specimens are considered to be close on 2,000 years old.

The aril (fleshy part of the berry) is eaten by birds who distribute the seed.